Lattice Semiconductor to showcase liquid lens technology

I just heard from the folks at Lattice that they will be demonstrating Varioptic’s liquid lens technology on theit LatticeECP3-based HDR-60 Development Kit at the China Security Expo in Beijing, China, from December 3 through December 6. The Lattice booth will be in Hall E1 at location Y13-14. (Click Here for more information about the China Security Expo.)

Varioptic’s breakthrough Electrowetting liquid lens technology enables extremely fast and noiseless variable focus with absolutely no moving parts, ensuring low power consumption, unlimited cycle lifetime and high shock resistance, and its large dynamic range guarantees focus from 5cm to infinity. The Caspian optical module, a combination of a Varioptic’s Arctic liquid lens and a high-resolution imaging lens, can be used instantly on any M12 lens-based camera board.

In addition, the folks from Helion have developed specific intellectual property (IP) blocks to evaluate the performance of Varioptic’s liquid lens technology on the Lattice HDR-60 Development Kit. The demonstration system consists of an HDR-60 main board equipped with a Sony 2.4 MP image sensor and Varioptic’s Caspian module. The Helion IP supports open loop, closed loop, and autofocus in video mode. The IP can be expanded to support optical image stabilization as well.

“Our cooperation with Lattice and Helion will enable our customers to reduce time to market with a complete platform, and benefit from local support for the hardware and software integration,” said Frederic Laune, Director of Sales and Marketing for Varioptic.

“We are excited to see leading edge technologies such as Varioptic’s liquid lens modules and Helion’s IP blocks being offered as part of our HDR-60 Development Kit’s ecosystem,” said Kambiz Khalilian, Lattice Strategic Marketing Manager for Industrial Markets. “The fast focusing, very low power and high shock resistance of Varioptic’s liquid lens technology, combined with our low power, low density FPGA devices, expands the range of applications we are addressing and brings added value to our customers.”

In the Lattice booth, visitors will be able to discuss their own design requirements with Lattice technical experts and see hands-on demonstrations of new camera solutions that leverage Lattice’s broad portfolio of low density and ultra-low density FPGA devices, including the low cost, low power MachXO2 and LatticeECP3 families. Demonstrations will include new WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) image sensor solutions; HD-SDI (Serial Digital Interface) cameras; and MIPI image sensor bridge solutions that enable low cost home security cameras. Building on its HDR-60 Development Kit ecosystem, Lattice will also feature analytics demos; a unique design solution for remotely locating an image sensor up to 10 meters away from an ISP; and dual image sensor designs for black box car driver recorders.

About the Lattice HDR-60 Video Camera Development KitThe Lattice HDR-60 Video Camera Development Kit offers camera manufacturers several unique benefits, including a fully integrated HDR image signal processing pipeline from sensor to HDMI/DVI display. The Kit also offers the industry’s fastest auto-exposure, greater than 120dB system dynamic range, a highly efficient Auto White Balance algorithm and 2D noise reduction – all in streaming mode through the FPGA without the need for an external frame buffer, enabling extremely low latency and further reducing system cost. On-board DDR2 memory also enables applications such as 3D noise reduction, image stitching from multiple sensors, image rotation and de-warping.

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